After
having recorded some of his younger brother Jacob’s teachings over the previous
five chapters (2 Nephi 6-10), Nephi tells us that even though Jacob shared many
other things with his people (the Nephites), what Nephi has recorded is enough
for now.
Nephi
then lets us know that he is going back to the words of Isaiah. Why? Because
Nephi’s soul delights in Isaiah’s words (verse 2). One very important reason
for this is that Isaiah saw the Redeemer (Jesus Christ), just as both Nephi and
Jacob have seen Jesus in visions. This brings us back to the law of witnesses
(verse 3). By sharing the words of two men who have had these experiences in
addition to himself, Nephi magnifies the power and credibility of what he
shares. And Nephi assures us that many more than three have been or will be
able to testify of the reality and power of Jesus Christ. Based on this
explanation, we understand better why Nephi features some of Jacob’s preachings
referencing Isaiah in the record Nephi keeps, intermingled with some of Nephi’s
own words, extracts from other prophecies of Isaiah, and his father Lehi’s
final testimony and blessings to his posterity.
To
this point, Nephi has included material from Isaiah—again, presumably taken
from the brass plates Nephi took from Laban in Jerusalem and brought with his
family to the Promised Land—comprising about four full chapters (according to
how Isaiah’s words were organized into chapters and verses in the King James
Bible). Now, Nephi will copy 13 consecutive chapters of Isaiah’s teachings onto
the limited space Nephi has on the smaller plates, as a statement to us of (1)
the sacredness and importance of Isaiah’s teachings in understanding the
mission of Jesus Christ at the core of the Lord’s plan of salvation for us, and
(2) Nephi’s conviction that what Isaiah wrote accurately represents Nephi’s
own understanding both of specific events that will take place regarding Christ
and of these events’ greater meaning.
Nephi
clearly wants us to liken the words of Isaiah unto ourselves and our own
circumstances (verses 2 and 8). These words were relevant in the centuries
before Christ’s mortal birth when they were first revealed, and are perhaps
even more relevant in our day as we look forward to Christ’s Second Coming and
are both witnesses of and participants in the great work of the gathering of
the Lord’s covenant people—the house of Israel.
In
the final verses of the chapter (4-7), Nephi seems to adopt a directness in
addressing his audience that we haven’t seen from him to this point. It’s in
the spirit of the words of Jacob he just shared with us. Previously, Nephi has
written much about the things he has seen and how they were explained to him by
Lehi or by angels or the Spirit of the Lord. But now he is finding his own
voice in relaying to us the significance of what he has seen, heard, and felt
first-hand. As he sees it, his ultimate responsibility, and joy, is “proving unto
my people the truth of the coming of Christ” (verse 4), and “that save Christ
should come all men must perish” (verse 6).
Nephi
goes on to testify, much like Paul in his letter to the Galatians about 600
years later (in Galatians 3:21-29), that the law of Moses instituted hundreds
of years earlier among the Israelites, along with all other things God has
revealed from the time of creation, points to the coming of Christ, for the
purpose that we might be able to recognize Him when He comes for our own salvation.
The
centerpiece of this newly direct approach to telling us the bottom line of what
Christ’s reality means for us is Nephi’s statement in verse 7:
“For
if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for
there could have been no creation. But there is a God, and he is Christ, and he
cometh in the fulness of his own time.”
According
to this statement, the existence of Christ is absolutely essential for there to
be a God. To my understanding, Nephi is saying that God’s whole purpose is to
give his people a pathway to salvation and to progress in knowledge, virtue,
and righteous power. In other words, to provide a Savior. To be a Savior. Otherwise
what’s the point? Someone who simply is there to provide an ecosystem and then
presides and observes at a distance without an active concern and plan for the
individuals inhabiting his creation is more like a zookeeper or a kid with an
aquarium than a serious Supreme Being. As the Lord states in another
fundamentally important scripture from our Church, which comes from an inspired
translation of the books of Moses in the Old Testament, “For behold, this is my
work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”
(Moses 1:39).
Thankfully,
through the accounts of Nephi and the other witnesses, we know that God is not
detached, arbitrary, or imaginary. Heavenly Father in fact is real, and has a
son, Jesus Christ, who resembles and represents Him perfectly—in fact is God
Himself—and intervenes in the right places and right times to unlock the door
to us to eternal life, salvation, and happiness, which can be fully realized in
God’s presence.
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